Larrry said:
Isn't it funny everyone talks about telephone poles. You know I haven't seen a phone line that needed telephone poles in ages.
These were genuine original telephone poles. My first memories were of the old single wire telephone system. The operator lived in town. When you rang a single ring, the operator would say, "Number, please." You would give the desired number, and she would connect you. We lived on a party line. When "two longs and one short" rang in, we knew the call was for us. It didn't matter too much, because everyone on the line would pick up the phone anyway. :wink: There wasn't any television or computers for distraction, and the party line was about the only entertainment available except for reading a good book by the light of a kerosene lantern.
We got electricity from the REA in the mid-1950's. Dial telephone came in during the late fall of 1967. This line was put in by Dad, his hired man, and four other ranchers with their hired help. The area south of Bassett had gone to underground wire, so Dad and his neighbors purchased their old above ground wire and poles. They had to first travel to the Bassett area to roll up the wire and take out the poles, then transport them to Merriman to set up our line. Fortunately the ground didn't freeze up very early in late 1967, which allowed them to dig the holes by hand and set the poles. I got in on a lot of the work over Christmas vacation from school that year.
There were no cell phones of course in those days. We did have a "test phone" though, which could be hooked to any two-wire dial phone system. This allowed phone service if you could find a phone line close enough to the ground to reach. Many times, my dad would roll up the test phone in his jacket and carry it tied on the back of his saddle. I wish I had taken a photograph of Dad sitting on his horse on a hilltop, having the convenience of a telephone clipped to two copper wires. We also always carried the test phone in the glove box of our only pickup.
Underground phone service happened in our area in 1985. The old telephone poles were taken up at that time, and many have now found usefullness as gate posts. With a wire going from the top of one pole to the top of the other, the fence doesn't need any other bracing. There is a height limit though on vehicles or tractors which doesn't work real well at times.